“Buy or Bye”™ – Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Week 1 2024 Cash Games

By Ha Kung Wong 

Twitter: @FBGarbageTime

In 2023, we were over 70% for cash lineups again and we’re back with more Daily Fantasy Football advice for Cash Games for Week 1 of the 2024 season!

You’re welcome.

As usual, before we get to winning you more bragging rights (and DFS cash), remember, the point of this article is not just to give you one or two lineups for each site, it’s to give you examples of a few POSSIBLE lineups.  Getting exposure to a few different lineups is always a good idea, so don’t forget to mix and match additional lineups from my suggestions below.  Trust me, it’s a lot more fun that way AND you’ll improve your chances of cashing!

Let’s get to winning you some CASH in Week 1 of the 2024 NFL season!

Cash Games, for those who don’t know, are essentially the lowest risk games.  They include “50/50” games, in which half the entrants win about 1.8x the entry fee, and “Double Ups”, in which slightly less than half the entrants win 2x the entry fee.

Since there’s so many different sites, and I can’t cover them all, I’ve decided to cover just the most popular sites, including Fan Duel, Draft Kings and Yahoo! Daily Fantasy.

First of all, as a general rule for 50/50 Cash Games, there’s a basic target of points per salary cap spent that you’d like to look for:

• For Fan Duel try to target at least 2 fantasy points per $1000 spent.
• For Draft Kings, try to target at least 2.5 fantasy points per $1000 spent.
• For Yahoo! Daily Fantasy, try to target at least 0.6-0.7 fantasy points per $1 spent.

Remember, this article is not focused on GPP (Tournament) Games, JUST Cash Games.  Feel free to use a few of these suggested players as a base when constructing a GPP lineup, but you’ll have to take some chances on a few low cost, upside players as well.

As per usual, I’m going to provide you with a few sample lineups on each site and give you a few notes to consider.  You’re welcome.

So, without further to do, here are my suggestions for the Best Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Cash Games and player props for Week 1 contests.

FanDuel 

Draft Kings 

Yahoo! DFS

Game Notes:

• For those new to this column, note that I never advocate against you paying up at any particular position for DFS.  We all know that the likes of Patrick Mahomes and Christian McCaffrey are probably going to have the most consistent upside in terms of potential fantasy points from week to week.  But remember that DFS is a salary cap game.  You can feel free to sprinkle high priced players into your lineups, but you can’t pay up at every position because there’s simply not enough salary to go around.  I try my best each week to provide my thoughts on how you might want to balance your cash lineups in terms of points potential and salary.
• My approach to DFS in Week 1 is to mostly go mid-priced throughout the lineups since we have no actual intel on who is worth paying up for in the current 53-man rosters.  I think you can get one or two premium studs at the RB or WR position with all the value, but don’t have to.
• The “Free Square of the Week”™ is Chuba Hubbard.  It’s tough to pick a “Free Square” in Week 1, because most starters are healthy, so there aren’t a ton of values based on injury opportunities.  But Hubbard may be a bit of the exception since rookie RB Jonathan Brooks was placed on the PUP list so is out for the first 4 games of the season, so Hubbard is the de facto starting RB for the Panthers for Week 1.  The Saints defense is solid but was ranked in the bottom half of the league in yards allowed to opposing RBs in 2023, plus we saw new Carolina head coach Dave Canales make Rachaad White relevant based almost entirely on volume while he was at Tampa Bay.  Miles Sanders might still steal some of his touches, but I like plugging him in for his relatively cheap pricing across industry, so you have cap space for other players.  For similar reasons, I like Jerome Ford as well as a cheap value play with Nick Chubb on the PUP list.
• The Jacksonville Jaguar @ Miami Dolphins game is tied for the highest over/under of the main slate (49), so I’m in on most of the skill players here, particularly Travis Etienne for the Jaguars and Tua Tagovailoa, Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle.  I’m not sure where the production will come from the Jaguars, but I do know that Etienne has full control of the backfield and will absolutely play all 3 downs after averaging over 1400 total yards in back-to-back seasons.  As for Tua and crew, we know they’re going to take it to the Jaguars soft secondary so long as they can avoid the pass rush.  Loving the upside, and with some decent values this week, it isn’t so hard to jam Hill into your lineups.
• Aaron Jones is ready to pick up where he left off in Green Bay in his new NFC North home. The Giants look to have one of the worst defenses in the league against the run having allowed the 2nd-most rushing yards per game to opposing RBs last season. I don’t expect surprise QB starter Sam Darnold to air it out in his first game with the Vikings, nor do I think they’ll have to.  There’s certainly a game script here where the Vikings stay close or remain ahead almost the entire game, giving Jones plenty of opportunity to grind out yards both on the ground and through the air.